In an emotional game like high school football, it’s definitely not easy to get a team going, bring it to a grinding halt, then gear it up again10 hours later. That’s a lot to ask of teenagers, both mentally and physically.
It happened last Friday night/Saturday morning for the players of St. Peter’s Prep and Memorial, who played three quarters of a 7-7 deadlock, before the electrical transformer at Miller Stadium in West New York blew and caught fire, causing a blackout and suspending the game at that point.
The game was resumed at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, when the final 11 minutes of the fourth quarter were completed – with no scoring. The game went into overtime, where Prep’s Bhima Gaddy scored a touchdown on Prep’s first offensive series in the extra session, giving the Marauders a hard-fought 13-7 two-day victory over the Tigers.
And it was certainly an emotionally draining loss for Memorial, who saw its chances for making a return trip to the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV playoffs practically disappear with that defeat.
“Going into the game, we realized that the writing was on the wall,” Memorial head coach Ed Sargent said. “Unless there’s a miracle, we’re done. That’s the way it goes. It was our biggest game of the season and we didn’t do it.”
The victory enabled the Marauders (4-2) to maintain both of their state playoff hopes and county title chances. The loss forces the Tigers (2-4) to play for pride.
Sargent said that the game’s suspension couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
“As far as momentum goes, it killed us,” Sargent said. “We had just stopped them on the 38-yard line and had the ball. We had just lost one of our best players, Alain Amaro, to a broken leg. The game is stopped and we lost the momentum. You could see it. We had to start it up again the next day and that was tough for us.”
St. Peter’s Prep head coach Rich Hansen agreed.
“It was very strange and very difficult,” said Hansen, who recalled having a similar situation occur when he was an assistant coach at the Prep in 1984 and a Prep-Marist game was suspended due to lightning and resumed two days later. “For both teams and both coaching staffs, it was very hard. It’s such an emotional, mental game and it’s very hard to restart the motor. I was most concerned with the mental aspect. I tip my hat to my kids who were able to come back and win.”
Hansen said that his players weren’t physically banged up, so they were able to play the next day.
“They weren’t overly sore, so that was good,” Hansen said. “We wanted to play the rest of the game as quickly as possible. We couldn’t play it Saturday night because of the lights and we couldn’t play it on Sunday because of prior obligations. We had a junior varsity football game scheduled for Monday. Our only choice was to gear it up and play the rest of the game on Saturday morning.”
Hansen said that it helped his team emotionally, knowing, as they arrived at Miller Stadium Saturday morning, that they were basically starting from scratch, playing an 11-minute game with the score tied.
“If either team had a lead, it would have been different,” Hansen said. “This way, we came out and knew we had to win the football game. As it played out, it was a war of wills for 11 minutes. I think that paid off for us.”
Hansen said that only one of his players, running back John Solan, was held out of playing Saturday morning, because of a sore knee.
Sargent wasn’t so lucky.
“We lost Alain, one of our team leaders,” Sargent said. “And our quarterback, Rudy Delgado, was so banged up that he couldn’t run, so he wasn’t a threat with the run. He could just pass. Our team was hurting.”
Running back Paul Villanueva has been battling a hamstring problem that has plagued him throughout the season.
“You can see he’s not the same,” Sargent said. “He’s out there playing linebacker and doing a great job. But on offense, he’s been having a tough time.”
For one coach, it was a win that could be a morale booster for the rest of the season.
“We were put under duress and they responded to it by coming back and winning the game,” Hansen said. “You have to be able to revert to that adversity and draw out the positive. It was a great win for us. With everything that was on the line, with the county and the state playoffs, it was great the way we won and it would have been difficult to lose.”
For the other coach, it was a loss that pretty much sealed a season.
“It has been very emotionally draining,” Sargent said. “It was very hard to start it up again on another day. But both teams were in the same boat and it was even worse for Prep, because they had to travel. Prep is a very good team and did what they had to do and won the game in overtime. We didn’t get it done. It hurt us, no question.”
One game, two days, two emotionally drained teams. It sometimes happens in the game of high school football.
“It’s very bizarre to have it happen twice in a coaching career,” Hansen said. “Once would have been good enough for me.”